Taylor Arnette is a BU sophomore majoring in Film & TV and co-founder of the Red List: BU’s newest short film club where members watch, discuss, learn from, and produce short films. She manages the club with co-president, Spencer Vilicic; treasurer, Meera Saveh; and secretary, John-John Little. This is the first semester for the Red List and they have already hosted a 48 hour film festival that produced ten short films, and have four films currently in pre-production. Taylor and her group plan to end the year with a film festival showcasing the four films they are producing, which will later be posted on YouTube and their pending website. Big things are happening for the Red List so keep an eye on their socials for good things to come!
Here’s what Taylor had to say about the popular club and her love of filmmaking:
What is it like running The Red List?
“It is stressful. It’s a lot of work but, being able to make something that’s really new and kind of experimental for BU right now… it’s worth it and it’s really exciting. All of the members seem very much into it, they’re all so collaborative and they work really well together. It’s exciting, I think is a good word to [explain it].”
What gave you the idea to start a club at BU?
“I was a writer… at another thing similar to the Red List at BU, and I wasn’t really happy with the way it was going because it was really hard to get things produced, make change, and create easily. They made it really difficult so we wanted to make this to be different. And to make more content.”
How did The Red List come about?
“I remember being there, in like a pitch room for a show that I was writing for, and all my ideas kept getting shot down. I was really upset and really discouraged, and then I came back the next week just having written already like half of the episode that we needed to write as a team effort, and they used all of what I had written. It was like six pages worth of stuff, that I had just gone ahead and written out. And they used it all. I was like, ‘okay, I can do this without you guys… and I’m gonna go and do that.’”
What is your favorite part of heading up the club?
“My favorite part is working with [the members], working with all the individual directors and stuff on their projects, and producing for them. Really just having the weekly meetings, seeing how excited they are, and having discussions… just interacting with the members.”
What inspired your love of films?
“I guess I would say acting. I was a kid actor and that helped, but I think it’s just the most innovative way of telling a story; I think anything else is too boring for me. I really think that the stories I like to tell can only be told in film version, so I think I don’t really have a choice.
What do you love about films?
For films in general, I like how they make you feel this overwhelming emotion. They make you feel a lot of different things, and it’s so overwhelming and powerful that I find little else makes me feel such a way. And I think something that can bring about such passion, sadness, or grief, or happiness is something that shouldn’t be ignored.”
What are the top 3 films that you recommend everybody watch? Why?
“Oh man. I’ve gotta pull up my Letterbox for this. I would recommend, for starters, Amélie. That’s a great one. I’m pretty sure every niche, film-girl writer is gonna say Amélie but, it’s just beautiful. It makes something that’s so simple. Foreign films have to work harder, if they are released in America, to gain an audience and to gain a likeness; and Amélie is instantly liked. It makes something boring or sad, whimsical. It makes life just whimsical, and it’s so hard to do that.
“Next, I would say, Good Time, by the Safdie Brothers. They actually went to BU, they’re really great. The movie is insane, it’ll make you feel really sad, but it’s incredible. The story behind it was just that these guys, [these] indie filmmakers, are so good at what they do that Robert Pattinson saw a screenshot, just a screenshot of one of their films, like a short film, and he reached out to them. He didn’t even watch the film and he was like, I want to make a movie with you guys, and I need you to write it now. And what they wrote was Good Time. It’s one of the most successful movies of the season in the indie sphere.
“I think the third one, I would say, is… Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki. It’s so beautiful… everything about it; there’s not a flaw. There’s a thing called picture lock — when you’re done editing the movie/the visuals — and everyone is like, aha that doesn’t exist, because there is always something that can be improved upon; there is nothing that can be improved upon with that movie. It’s done. It will remain beautiful forever, and ever, and ever, and ever, and ever, and ever. It’s just the best.”
What’s Letterbox?
“Letterbox is a social media app (this is not sponsored!) where you log what movies you watch. You can review them and rate them. You can look back over, at the end of the year, and see what movies you watched and what you thought about them, and remember things…it’s really great.”
Any advice for people pursuing film/short film?
“Just make it. Do whatever you can, to make whatever you can. ”
Keep up with The Red List & Taylor Arnette:
@the.redlist
@taylor.arnette
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